Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence against women

Gaye Didem Çabukoğlu, Pemra Cöbek Ünalan, Ersin Akpinar

Keywords: domestic violence against women, COVID-19 pandemic, family medicine

Aim:

Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation.Intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence.In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of the curfews, which were started to be implemented in March 2020 in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic and were stretched in June 2021, on Violence Against Women.

Method:

This study, which was organized a descriptive study, was conducted with patients, relatives of patients and volunteers residing in the surrounding area, women over 18 years of age who applied to family medicine centers on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.The 36-question questionnaire, prepared by scanning the literature on this subject, was applied face-to-face for one year after being approved by the CUTF Ethics Committee.

Results:

The mean age of the participants in the study was 34.70±12.30 years. Of the participants 18.7% were exposed to violence before the quarantine. Among the perpetrators of violence most frequently were spouses 10.0%. The most common type of violence was defined as psychological violence as 22.2%. Violence against women during the quarantine period, exposure to violence before the quarantine , domestic conflict before the quarantine and the severity of conflicts within the family during the quarantine period was found to be statistically significant and positively correlated according to Spearman's rho correlation analysis results.

Conclusions:

When it comes to violence against women, the spouse/partner comes first, regardless of the quarantine period or before. During the quarantine period, violence against women increased compared to before, it was stated that the most common type of violence was psychological violence. For this reason, in this period when access to health services is very limited, psychological support services that can reach participants from a distance should be increased, and preventive and even therapeutic measures can be taken.

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